Remnants of Another World
by Slavok
Summary: A series of one shots where Louise summons different characters from RWBY to be her familiar. Now with Penny, Pyrrha, Raven, Qrow, Nora, Velvet, Neo, and Weiss.
1. Penny

Remnants of Another World

Penny

With no wifi signal, no scroll reception, and her GPS not working, Penny had no idea where she was. Still, she didn't worry much. Things would make sense eventually, and until then, it was a beautiful day without a cloud in the sky.

It had been night-time a few minutes ago, but that was one of the many things Penny didn't feel like worrying about. She'd much rather lie in the grass and enjoy herself. There was a big stone tower next to her, too. It looked so nice and archaic.

"Is that a commoner?"

There were people nearby. That was nice. Penny liked listening to people. She wasn't very good at talking to them, but they were fun to listen to.

"It looks like a commoner."

"Louise summoned a commoner! That's hilarious!"

The people around her laughed. Penny didn't get the joke, but she smiled anyway. One of the people approached her. She was a girl with bright pink hair that looked like cotton candy.

"Who are you?" the girl asked.

"Salutations!" Penny said. "My name is Penny! What's your name?"

"Louise."

"Salutations, Louise! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"You already said that."

Penny checked her memory file and confirmed that she had, in fact, said salutations twice. "So I did."

"Are you going to keep lying on the ground all day, or are you going to get up?"

Penny considered her choices. Lying down gave her a better view of the sky, but standing up offered more mobility and a better view of the people around her. "I'm going to get up."

WWW

Louise hoped that the girl would look more impressive standing up, but she was wrong. Penny just looked so _ordinary_. Orange hair, freckles, and a lopsided bow that was going to irritate her to no end. Was she, Louise de La Valliere, really expected to make a familiar out of this commoner?

She turned to Professor Colbert. "Professor, can I try again? I think I made a mistake."

Colbert shook his head. "No, there was no mistake, Miss Valliere. The summoning spell worked perfectly."

The spell's perfection was debatable in her mind. "Can I try again anyway? I don't really like this one."

He sighed. "Miss Valliere, this is an ancient and sacred ritual. You can't pick divine, destined servants off the shelf like you're buying clothes."

Louise disliked that analogy, especially since she most certainly did not buy her clothes 'off the shelf.' Her father was a duke, not a merchant. "Please?" she asked one last time.

"No."

"Okay, fine," she said with a sigh, "but I won't like it." She turned back to her summoned commoner, who stood there with the same smile on her face. _Well, there's no turning back now._ Louise recited the incantation, tapped the commoner on her forehead, and kissed her on the lips.

Penny promptly fell over.

WWW

WARNING

FIREWALL BREACHED

CORE FILES CORRUPTED

FULL REBOOT RECOMMENDED

DO YOU WISH TO RESTART YOUR SYSTEM?

AUTOMATIC RESTART IN 60 … 59 …

No

YOU HAVE CHOSEN NOT TO RESTART YOUR SYSTEM

Penny opened her eyes and found herself once more lying on the ground. She had expected a lot from her first kiss. She had not expected that.

"You kissed me," she said, standing up.

Louise faced the opposite direction. "Are we quite done now, Professor Colbert?"

The man with the shiny head nodded. "It appears so. The contract has taken place, and while I'm not familiar with that particular set of runes, everything seems to be in order. Good job, Miss Valliere."

"Yay. Go me."

The crowd dispersed leaving Penny and Louise alone in the courtyard. "You kissed me," Penny said again.

Louise looked at her. "Huh? Technically, I suppose, but it was really just part of the ritual."

Penny thought she knew what that meant, but just to be sure, she accessed her Romance Protocol. "Does this mean I'm your girlfriend?"

"Huh?"

GIRLFRIEND STATUS CONFIRMED

"Oh my gosh! I'm your girlfriend! Are you going to take me out to dinner, buy me clothes, get me flowers–"

"What? No!" Louise looked around. "Look, familiar, just stop talking where people can hear you and come with me."

Louise took her hand in hers and led her into the stone tower while Penny struggled to understand the situation.

First they kissed.

Then they held hands.

And now … Louise opened the door to what appeared to be a bedroom.

UNAUTHORIZED STAGE FIVE ROMANCE CONFIRMED

SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED

SELF DESTRUCT IN 3 … 2 …

Cancel Cancel Cancel Cancel Cancel Cancel

SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE TERMINATED

Penny really needed to have her father fine-tune some of her programs when she got back. Speaking of getting back, she had been in the middle of a tournament before she left. She hoped that no one was too upset about her mysterious disappearance.

WWW

Back in Remnant, many people were very upset.

"Unprecedented!" Doctor Oobleck said over the loudspeaker. "It appears that the contestant, Penny, has spontaneously disappeared. Can we get an instant replay?"

"As you can see," Professor Port said, "young Penny Polendina of Atlas has vanished without a trace. Do you think that is a manifestation of her Semblance, Professor?"

"Doctor! And no. Neither her nor her opponent are known to have teleportation, translocation, or invisibility as a Semblance. However, just in case, Penny has thirty seconds to reappear or otherwise make her presence known, or Pyrrha Nikos will win by default."

The crowd of onlookers booed, but out of all of them, none of the people in the stands were more upset than Emerald.

"What do you mean, she disappeared?" Cinder demanded.

"I'm telling you she just vanished," Emerald explained into her scroll. "Into thin air. Poof."

"That's unfortunate. Oh well. We'll just have to make up for it in the next match."

"Actually I have more bad news. Remember Yang, the bimbo who got disqualified for breaking Mercury's leg? One of her teammates recognized me and realized that I wasn't flying back to Haven like I said I would."

There was a moment of cold, merciless silence. "And what did you tell her?"

"I actually didn't talk to her. I, um, I kind of had Mercury handle her so I could focus on the match."

"And did he handle it by killing her?"

Emerald swallowed. "He might have?"

WWW

"So I'm expected to protect you, watch out for you, and fetch ingredients for you." Penny and Louise were defining their relationship. Penny had never defined her relationship before. She had never _had_ a relationship to define before.

"Generally speaking, yes," Louise said. "Though I can't imagine you would be much good in a fight. A raven would probably tear you up."

"Oh, don't worry about me, Louise! I'm combat ready!"

"Uh-huh. Sure you are. Look, I'm going to get ready for bed. Are you going to explode if I take my clothes off in front of you?"

AUTOMATIC SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE DEACTIVATED

Why wasn't that the default setting? Penny would have to ask her father about that, because it seemed like a rather serious design flaw. "I will not."

"Lovely." Louise changed into a nightgown.

"I still have one question, though," Penny said. "Dates. I think I'd prefer movies to eating out, but I can be flexible."

Louise pulled her nightgown over her head. It was as pink as her hair and went down to her ankles. "No! I don't know how you got it into your head, but you are not my girlfriend, you are my familiar. I am not your girlfriend, I am your master."

Penny's lip trembled. "But you kissed me! Are you breaking up with me already?"

"No! There is, and follow me on this, there is _nothing_ to break up! The k-kiss was part of the ritual to bind the contract which says that you are supposed to serve me and do whatever I want for the rest of your life, and I have to put up with you for the rest of mine. Do you understand?"

Penny opened her data files and cross referenced the terms "kiss," "contract," and "life." She gasped. "Are we _married_?" She had only expected to take part in a tournament. If she had known that she was going to get married, she would have worn something nicer.

Louise grabbed a pillow, smothered her face in it, and let out a muffled scream. Penny's wife had remarkable lung capacity.

"Look," Louise said after one minute and forty-seven seconds of continuous screaming. "This is getting out of hand. Why don't you just forget everything that just happened, and we can start over?"

"Okay."

Penny closed her eyes, opened her memory files, and accessed the most recent one.

DO YOU WISH TO DELETE MEMORY FILE 4146-6423-5623?

Yes

MEMORY FILE 4146-6423-5623 SENT TO THE RECYCLING BIN

Penny opened her eyes and found herself in a strange room with a pretty girl with pink hair. She smiled. "Salutations! My name is Penny! What's your name?"

The stranger frowned. "Louise."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Louise!" Penny looked around. "How did I get here?"

Louise scowled. "I'm going to bed."

WWW

A/n So I'm doing something different with this story. Instead of following a specific familiar through canon events, I'm making a series of one shots with different characters. I wanted to start off with something light and funny, and no one is lighter and funnier than Penny, until the end of season three, and I am overriding her unnecessary and tragic death through fan fiction. That's how I cope with my problems. Next up is Pyrrha, because while I'm overriding unnecessary and tragic deaths, I might as well get all of them, and I'm planning on doing Ruby, Raven, and Neo in no particular order.

Because summoning people over and over again could get boring, I'll eventually turn these one shots into two shots and three shots. If there is a character that you would like to see summoned or continued, let me know in a review or a PM, and we can do a sort of poll.

Finally, thank you Magery for editing this chapter. He seems to have already placed a vote for Raven, so the current poll is Raven: 1, everyone else: 0.


	2. Pyrrha

Remnants of Another World

Pyrrha

A girl in red and gold armor knelt to a girl in a red and gold dress. Pyrrha was the untouchable warrior who bowed to no one–but for all her talents and abilities, she could not stand. It didn't matter how good she was with a spear and a shield, not when she was facing a power that could only be described as magic.

It was strange. When the Headmaster had offered her that magic, the power of the Fall Maiden, it had terrified her, but now, faced with it, about to be killed by it …

"Do you believe in destiny?"

Her opponent's yellow eyes burned like embers. "Yes." She formed a bow out of nothing, pulled the string taut … and Pyrrha vanished in a flash of green light.

The arrow shot through the air, hitting nothing. Cinder stared for a moment and looked around for an intruder on her fight. "Alright, who's stealing my kills?" Ozpin? No, he was dead. She found a new girl, the one with the red cape and scythe, standing on the edge of the building.

"Pyrrha," the girl whispered, staring at the place where Cinder's opponent had been. "No!" Terrible, burning light burst out of her silver eyes, dwarfing even the new power Cinder had obtained … but that is another story.

WWW

Louise had asked for a familiar that was divine, beautiful, and powerful, and ended up disappointed. Shooting for the moons could do that to a young mage.

Divine? No, her familiar was painfully mortal, and a mortal girl at that. Beautiful? Some might consider her so. She had bright red hair in a long ponytail and equally vibrant green eyes, but Louise had been hoping more for the beauty of a majestic beast than the human definition. Powerful? Definitely not. She could barely stand … because she was injured.

"Oh, Founder, are you okay? You're hurt!"

The girl looked up at her as Louise approached and, breathing heavily, forced a smile. "It's not serious. How did I get here? Did I … where am I?"

"You're at the Tristain Academy. You got here … on accident. Something went wrong with the Familiar Summoning Ritual."

"Nothing went wrong," Colbert said, approaching the pair of them. "The ritual worked perfectly."

"Perfectly?" Louise repeated. "I summoned a _commoner_! Clearly there's been some mistake."

"This was no mistake," Colbert said. "This was destiny."

"What?" the red-haired girl said suddenly. She forced herself to her feet, wincing in pain, and stood. She was tall, Louise realized, as tall as Colbert with her heels on. Blood dripped down one of those golden heels, staining the grass. "What do you mean by destiny?"

Colbert frowned. "Brimir doesn't chose familiars by chance. The Familiar Summoning Ritual is a spell mages have cast for six thousand years, and each time they have received a familiar that matched their abilities, their ambitions, even their elements perfectly. Because Louise summoned you out of all the creatures in the world, your destiny is bound to hers and hers to yours until the day one of you dies."

"Spell?" the girl asked, latching onto that word and that word alone. "As in, a _magic_ spell?"

Louise and Colbert shared a glance. "Of course," he said. "What else could it be?"

The girl looked down at Louise, grey circles around her green eyes as though she were barely hanging on. "You can do magic?"

Louise puffed out her chest indignantly. "Of course I can! I am a noble and a mage."

The girl looked across the crowd as though struggling to come to terms with being surrounded by Louise's entire class of mages.

Then she laughed. She fell to her knees laughing, and Louise heard her bitterly spit out one word.

" _Destiny_."

WWW

They sealed the contract with a kiss, just like in a fairytale. The surge of pain that shot through Pyrrha's body as runes formed on her left hand, though, seemed more grounded in reality.

The world she had stumbled into was strange–and there was no doubt it wasn't her own. There were no Grimm, weaponry had not progressed beyond the canon and the musket, and every tenth person could cast spells with a magic wand.

Pyrrha wasn't sure which fairytale she was living in ever since one of the Four Maidens tried to kill her, but it clearly wasn't done with her yet.

"Can you show me?" Pyrrha asked.

Louise frowned. "Show you what?"

"Magic. I've only seen it once before, so if it's not too much trouble …"

Louise pointed at Pyrrha's foot. "The ointment you used."

"That was magic? I thought that was medicine."

Louise rolled her eyes. " _Magical_ medicine. Some water mage empowered the ingredients while mixing it together."

Pyrrha looked down at the bandage around her heel. Cinder's arrow had pierced her Achilles tendon, which would take weeks to heal normally, and possibly require surgery. Aura could be spent increasing the regeneration rate, but after applying the ointment, the throbbing had stopped entirely, and by the time they reached Louise's room Pyrrha could walk with barely a limp.

For all their magic, however, the people of this world knew nothing of Aura.

"It's a manifestations of the soul," Pyrrha explained. "It is the Huntress' shield and her strength, to protect and empower her."

Louise glanced at her foot. "Was yours not working?"

"It wore off. Any shield breaks under enough pressure. Any armor can be pierced."

"So what were you fighting, then? Another–what was it called–another Huntress?"

"She was more than that," Pyrrha said. "I told you I had encountered magic once before, and that was it. A Huntress who had acquired magic."

As soon as she said that, a thought sparked in her mind. _A Huntress who had acquired magic._ Even before, Cinder must have been powerful, strong enough to defeat the previous Fall Maiden. When her natural ability combined with her newfound mystical powers, she had managed to defeat Ozpin and had snapped Pyrrha's weapon, Miló, with her bare hands.

The loss off her weapon had hurt Pyrrha more than the arrow in her heel.

But here, one tenth of the world could use magic, and anyone with a soul had the potential for an Aura.

 _Anyone._

"What do mages of this world do to protect themselves?" Pyrrha found herself asking.

"Armor. Protective spells. That sort of thing."

Pyrrha nodded. "But not Aura?"

Louise shook her head. "We don't have that here."

"Would you like me to unlock yours?"

Louise fell silent. The whole day, the girl had seemed contemptuous and condescending, had worked to _appear_ contemptuous and condescending, but for the first time she seemed afraid. "I … I just told you. We don't have that here."

"Anything with a soul can use Aura," Pyrrha explained. "I've known people to unlock the Aura of their pets, farmers to unlock the Aura of their trees, but it is most common for one warrior to unlock the Aura of another."

Louise silently mouthed the word, "warrior," and said, "This will make me stronger?"

"The strength has always been your own," Pyrrha said. "It's only a matter of knowing what is within."

Louise fell silent again. "And if it doesn't work?"

"Then nothing will happen." But it always worked.

She bit her lip. "Okay. What do I have to do?"

Pyrrha stood tenderly and approached her. "I need you to relax." She cupped Louise's face in her hands and activated her own Aura. "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality," she said. Spoken like a prayer, they were the words passed down by tradition from one generation of Huntresses to another. "Through this, we become a paragon of virtue to rise above all." She moved a hand to Louise's heart, feeling her life pulse beneath her chest. "Infinite in distance and unbound by death, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee."

Pyrrha felt Louise's Aura with her own, bound as if by chains. She focused her Aura and struck those chains again and again until they shattered, and the manifestation of Louise's soul spilled out, free.

"I'm glowing!" Louise squeaked. "Why am I glowing? Am I supposed to be glowing right now?"

Pyrrha opened her eyes and saw a bright radiance surrounding the girl, pink to Pyrrha's red. "I've unlocked your Aura," she said. "You have a lot of it."

With that, the wave of exhaustion that had been building since her fight with Cinder–no, since her fight with Penny–hit her, and she collapsed on Louise's bed. The girl didn't seem to mind.

Still, as Pyrrha drifted off to sleep in a new world, she wondered, _Why did I do that?_

Part of it was because she needed something familiar. Too much had changed too quickly, and she needed to grab onto something that she knew. She had unlocked Jaune's Aura during her early days at Beacon in the Emerald Forest, and the connection that she had built with him, training him, being on Team JNPR with him, had led to the best–was it only months?–the best months of her life.

But it was more than that. Despite everything that had happened, Pyrrha still believed in destiny, but hers wasn't what she had thought it would be. She used to think that her destiny was to protect the world, but specifically she had to defend it from one person.

Cinder may have been a world away, but deep in her heart, Pyrrha knew they would meet again. They would meet, they would fight, and Pyrrha would win or she would die. Making a Huntress out of a mage would prepare her for that.

She had nearly died that day. Only a few hours ago she was defeated, on her knees, with an arrow pointed at her heart, but Pyrrha Nikos wasn't done yet. Not by a long shot.

WWW

A/n Okay, so this was a bit more serious than the last chapter, but I really couldn't think of a way to make Pyrrha's experiences funny, and I didn't think I should try. I may or may not have Cinder be summoned by King Joseph in this scenario. I haven't decided yet, but I have decided on Louise's Semblance. If you don't like spoilers, I'm writing it backwards so you won't read it on accident. Nem-x morf srewop s'tibmag fo ffo ti gnisab m'i. If you can think of a more appropriate Semblance for Louise, let me know. I dare you.

As usual, thank you Magery for editing this chapter, and thank you to everyone who left a review.

And wow did people leave reviews. I was not expecting this sort of response from the first chapter. The current poll is as follows:

Raven–1

Qrow–2

Juane–1

Neo–2

Sun–1

Penny–3

Blake–2

Ozpin–1

Junior–1

Torchwick–2

Tyrian–1

Nora–1

King of Vale–1

Watts–1

Summer Rose–2

Ghira–1

Nucklavee–1

Ironwood–1

Winter–1

Cinder–1

Weiss–1

I don't know if I should count all of them, because I can't tell the difference between suggestions and actual votes. Some of these people I've never even heard of. Watts? Ghira? Were they in the show? I remember the Nucklavee, but man, I'm going to need the RWBY wiki on some of these.


	3. Raven

Remnants of Another World

Chapter Three

Raven

During the Springtime Familiar Summoning Ritual, every second year student followed tradition and pulled a surprise from the far corners of the world. Some aspiring mages gained guardians, others scouts, and still others steeds, common animals or magical beasts–but each summoned a servant.

All except Louise.

She summoned a monster.

From the neck down, her familiar appeared to be a woman in red and black. Her tunic, while of a foreign cut, was both elegant and practical, and the scabbard hanging from her hip (as well as the crimson, interlocking gauntlets on her hands) marked her as a warrior.

It was easy for a mage to underestimate a warrior. Once.

The woman's face, above her beaded necklace, was covered by a white mask like a monster's skull with four red eyes, and a mane of midnight hung from her head. All Louise paid attention to, however,was the commoner's weapon that the woman carried, and so she thought she'd summoned some barbarian savage.

"Ha!" Montmorency, one of her classmates called out. "Louise summoned a commoner!"

Louise blushed in embarrassment and approached her summon, trying to ignore the jeers of the other students. "Hey," she said. "What's your name?"

The mask's four red eyes looked down at her. Two of them blinked.

Louise scowled. "I don't know who you are, but I am a noble, and when a noble asks you a question, you answer."

The wind rustled the woman's hair, but beyond that, she was a statue.

Louise glared up at the woman and tried to cow her by the sheer presence of her station and nobility like she had seen her parents do so many times growing up, but it didn't work. She turned to Professor Colbert. "Professor, there's been a mistake. Can I try again?"

The bald teacher shook his head. "No, Miss Valliére, this is a sacred ritual, and you've performed it correctly. All that's left to do is seal the contract."

"B-but I can't form the Familiar Contract with–with _her_! Can I?"

Colbert looked at the woman. "I don't see why not."

"But she's creepy," she said under her breath. Unfortunately, that was no excuse. She sighed and raised her wand. "My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Valliére." Her wand began to glow. "By the Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers–"

She felt a slight whoosh of wind, and a long, curved sword with a blade that looked to be made of blood-stained steel was out of her familiar's scabbard and in her familiar's hand. The tip of Louise's wand fell off, cut in half.

Louise had a moment of surprise and indignation at seeing her wand destroyed before her interrupted spell exploded in her hand. The eruption knocked her off her feet and the air out of her lungs. She began to sit up, coughing, and found a black boot on her chest and her familiar standing over her.

"Where am I?" the woman asked, her voice smooth and soft.

Louise took a deep breath. "Oh, you did _not_ just do what I think you just did. Do you have any idea what you–"

The tip of the red sword was at her throat, and Louise stopped talking. "Do not make me repeat myself."

Louise swallowed. "Um, Professor?"

"That's enough," Professor Colbert said, brandishing his staff. "I'm sure this must be a very disorientating experience for you, but I will not tolerate you threatening my students."

The woman looked up at him, slowly, calmly. "Students? You are a teacher, then?"

Colbert dipped his head once in a nod. "Yes. Now, if you would be so kind as to step away from young Miss Valliére, we can settle this."

"And if I refuse?" Her voice was silk; a silk curtain dripping blood. "Would you … stop me?"

"Yes."

The woman cocked her head. "So you are a warrior."

Colbert hesitated, then shook his head. "No. I am a teacher."

"Ah." She sheathed her sword back in a scabbard that seemed too small for it. Louise breathed easier for a moment, but when that moment passed, the woman vanished from above her, appeared in front of Colbert, and pounded the hilt of her sword into the professor's gut, sending him flying over the heads of the crowd of students behind him. "Then know your place."

Louise scrambled to her feet as her familiar–no, until they completed the contract, the woman was only the creature she had summoned–strode towards her as though she sent mages flying every day.

"Founder Brimir!" one of her classmates cried out. "She killed Colbert!" Louise winced, hoping that they were exaggerating. Some of the students pointed their wands at the woman, and while most of them were dot or line-class mages, Louise was sure they could defeat her together, but none of them wanted to risk casting the first spell.

In any case, Louise had summoned her, so the woman was her responsibility. And her wand was broken. Lovely. She had a few spares in her dorm room, but they might have well have been back in her family's estate for all the good it did her.

"Did you really kill him?" she asked.

"If I did, he had no business teaching you. Now, for the last time, my question."

"You're in the Tristain Academy of Magic in the Kingdom of Tristain in the continent Halkeginia," she said. Should she have been more thorough? No, anything more would have come off as condescending.

The woman stood still, her masked face unreadable. "You learn magic here?" she said finally. "You _learn_ magic here?"

"Um, yes?" Could magic not be learned where the woman was from?

She looked around, as though seeing the world around her for the first time. "Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Valliére," she said finally. "My name is Raven Branwen. I'll keep in touch."

Raven drew her sword once more and swung it, slashing a wound into the air itself, forming a bleeding red vortex. She walked through it, and the hole vanished.

Louise gaped. "What the–she just unsummoned herself! How did she do that?" A moment later a thought occurred to her. "I summoned a mage."

On the other side of the courtyard, Professor Colbert sat up and groaned. Huh. So he wasn't dead.

"Excuse me, Professor? Do I need to resummon her? Because I don't think I should resummon her."

Some of the students carried Colbert to the infirmary.

"Okay," she said. "I won't then. Good idea."

WWW

A/n Head canon time, I don't know what Raven's Semblance is, but working along the lines that Qrow's is the ability to cause misfortune, I'm going to say that Raven can foresee misfortune. That would explain how she was able to pop out of nowhere right before Neo was able to kill Yang without devoting her life to stalking her daughter. There's also the thing about turning into birds and creating portals, but I'm going to assume that's just an advanced skill or something.

I really could not think of a plausible explanation for why Raven would accept a life of servitude in another world when she could actually leave that world, so I didn't. This way, though, I left the door open so Raven could return if she ever feels inclined, and because the contract was never completed, Louise could resummon her in an emergency. At least, I think that's how the spell works. Again, head canon.

Now, this is important (which is why I put it in the middle of my author's note), but I have realized that I do not have the time to devote to these stories that they deserve. A few people have told me that a certain chapter deserves to be a full story, and I agree. I would love a to see the world unfold as Penny brings futuristic technology to Halkeginia, or Pyrrha sets up a Huntsmen Academy for mages and commoners alike, or Nora breaks the legs of everyone she meets (spoilers), but I barely have enough time to introduce the ideas, let alone flesh them out.

Therefore, every chapter I have written or will write is officially up for adoption to a loving writer with lots of time. Don't get me wrong, I still have plans for Raven and the others against Fouquet's golem, Wardes, and the Battle of 70,000, and I hope to come back and write more chapters for them, but if you have the time and inclination, send me a private message and I'll be sure to include a link to your story in the next chapter I publish.

Finally, thank you everyone who left reviews. I was not expecting nearly the response for this story that I have received, and that's why I keep on coming back to this. Finally, thank you, once more, Magery, for editing this chapter.


	4. Qrow

Remnants of Another World

Chapter Four

Qrow

Qrow Branwen took a swig of something that was definitely not whiskey. Wine. Who drank wine, anyway? Classy pricks trying _not_ to get drunk, he supposed.

"So, churchman," he said. "Your religion doesn't have a lot of rules about sex and liquor, does it?"

Pope Vittorio, the man in front of him with long blond hair and a pointy hat, nodded. "Quite a few, actually."

"Shame. I've got my share of rules, too. Broken all but one of them."

"Oh?" Vittorio said. "What rule was that?"

"The rule that says that when a dude kisses me, I need to get drunk." He took a long swig, hoping to make up in quantity what the wine had in quality. "So, Vit-tor-i-o. You got a nickname or something? Vitty? Tory?"

"Pope Vittorio suits me fine, thank you."

"Great. Couldn't help but notice this mark on my hand now. Don't recognize the alphabet, but it looks like some sort of writing. Means anything?"

"Ah, yes, the Familiar Runes. I've seen them before, though never in the flesh." Vittorio leaned forward, and his expression relaxed from affronted to smug and eager. "I've spent some time in the memories of holy relics, most of which were unfortunately fraudulent, but some were held by Founder Brimir."

"Huh. And I take it that name is supposed to mean something."

Vittorio blinked. "Are you serious? His name means something to everyone, heathens and faithful alike. Even the demons in the desert across the sea know his name—and fear it. As they should."

"Yeah, well, I guess I'm special then." Qrow took another drink. He was getting used to the wine's richness and flavor. If he wasn't careful, he wouldn't be able to go back to whiskey. That was what the front of his brain was focusing on. The south end was following along with what the blonde guy was talking about. "Heathens" and "faithful" were religious terms, but _demons_ interested him. Was that what they called Grimm around these parts? It seemed unlikely. After Atlas built their CCT's in every kingdom as their "gift to the world," local slang began to give way to mainstream terms. Also, what did he mean with the "memories of holy relics?" Was that a metaphysical sort of nonsense, or genuine crazy?

"You're joking. Surely you must be joking. Founder Brimir saved mankind from the elvish onslaught six millennia ago. Every human being in the world has heard of him."

Was that another one of the fairy tales Oz was always worked up about? He'd have to ask next time he was in Beacon. "Maybe you should get out more, friend, because I can think of quite a few people across Remnant who haven't heard this story either."

Vitto—ah, yes! That was a good nickname for him—stared at him blankly. "Remnant. Is that the kingdom you're from?"

Qrow froze. Then he downed the rest of the wine and threw the empty bottle across the room. The pope stood up. "I think you've had quite enough, Mr. Branwen."

"And _I_ think you're gonna sit your scrawny butt down and tell me what the hell is going on, because I haven't had nearly enough."

Vitto frowned. "And if I decide to wait until you're sober?"

"Then you'll find out that the sword on my back is also a scythe. And a gun."

The guards lining the walls shuffled their feet, looking for a signal from their boss to act, but not too enthusiastic about it. Not compared to the first set of guards, at least. Vitto held Qrow's gaze for a moment, and eventually he sighed and sat down. "I'd tell you that Brimir frowns upon the murder of his priests, but you seem well acquainted with blasphemy."

Qrow snorted. "Nope. Wouldn't know blasphemy if it pissed holy water. Now let's skip the righteous indignation and go straight to the part where you tell me how I got here and how I get back to my world."

Vitto's eyes widened. Slightly. "So you're from another world. Fascinating. We have a number of otherworldly relics in our vaults, courtesy of an ancient spell. The church has been storing them for the Gandalfr, should he return, but perhaps you should take a look at them. As for your question, I summoned you as my familiar. One of the oldest spells in existence is the Familiar Summoning Ritual, wherein Brimir grants the mage an ideal servant. At least, that is the theory, one which you have strived diligently to discredit."

Spells? Oz would love this place, if the man's talk was more than Semblances and superstition. "I'm not even started. So, you're a magic man who magicked me here. Can you magic me back?"

The pope studied him in silence. "I can."

"Then congratulations, Vitto. You dodged a bullet."

His eye twitched at the nickname. Looked like it fit. "I am also the only person in the world capable of casting that spell."

Qrow hunched his shoulders. "And I suppose you're gonna try to exploit that fact."

"You could, of course, try to murder me."

"Sounds like fun."

"But then you could spend several lifetimes trying to find my successor, who would likely have no idea what he had inherited. As a compromise, you could assist me in my endeavors for the next four years, after which I would be happy to open a World Door on your behalf."

Four years? Well, he hadn't gone _quite_ that long without reporting to Ozpin before, but the man would be more frustrated than worried at his silence. "Huh. And what 'endeavors' are you talking about?"

Vitto shot him a level, serious look for a theatrical delivery. "Preventing humanity's extinction."

"Figures. Does this world have an expiration date, or did you just leave it out over night?"

"It has an unprecedentedly large vein of Wind Stones rising to the surface."

"Huh. You know, why don't you assume that my world doesn't have Wind Stones at all?"

"Alright. Imagine everything turning into a volcano."

"Oh. Yeah, we got those in Remnant. Fun to throw people into, but I wouldn't want to live in one. I'm guessing your planet's gonna Pompeii itself in four years or so?"

"According to our best estimates, yes."

"And you got a plan to stop this."

He nodded. "To avert this cataclysm, or at least avoid it, I would need the help of three other people like me, as well as three other Familiars like you. Be my eyes and ears, Qrow Branwen, and you could save my world and return to yours."

Was there another bottle of wine around here? "You know, it's funny, Pope Vitto. My last job also had me working for a guy masterminding the salvation of mankind, had me as his eyes and ears, and had me looking for a set of four. For Maidens, four Relics, and you got four Familiars and four … whatever you are."

"We are Void Mages," he said reverently.

"Cute."

"And the significance of that fact is entirely wasted on you. Oh, the trials I must endure."

"You're a martyr. Speaking of wasted, is there any way I can get a refill of this stuff?" He held up his empty cup.

Vitto waved a servant over with a wine bottle. "Perhaps larger forces are at work, then," he said. "Although it is fortunate that you have experience in this line of work."

"Like I said, I'm special." He took a swig. Did people say that wine was supposed to be sipped? Well, screw 'em if they did. "Actually, I got an idea. I don't know if our worldses … es … problems are connected, but I can introduce you to the guy who _would_."

Vitto raised an eyebrow. "Your previous employer?"

Qrow nodded. "His name's Ozpin. You'd like him. You two could, I dunno, pool resources and _scheme_. But try not to kiss him. I'm ninety … five percent sure he wouldn't appreciate that."

The pope struggled to maintain his holy atmosphere. "You do not intend to let me forget that, do you?"

"I don't intend to remember it, which is why I'm getting drunk."

Vitto sighed. "Brimir, give me strength."

"Barman, give me drink," Qrow echoed. A servant refilled his cup. "A miracle! God _does_ answer prayers!"

Vitto glared murder at him, and Qrow chugged his wine. He had a feeling he was going to like this place.

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A/n Just a disclaimer here: the religious beliefs of the characters in this story are their own, and no way reflect the views of the writer or his associated scribes. On the bright side, writing Qrow gave me the chance to channel my inner angry drunk, which proves that you don't need alcohol to get drunk if you're a writer.

A few people suggested Qrow, and it was NotBibleCANON's idea to have him summoned by Vittorio, which I liked because I could have him be his familiar no matter whom Louise summons. I was tempted to make the Raven story and the Qrow story parts of the same chapter as a Siblings Branwen sort of thing, but this way Qrow can show up anywhere he wants, so sorry if you're a fan of that Julio guy, because he won't likely be around.

I realize that many people may have watched the anime without reading the light novel, and while I tend to go back and forth between the two, I'm basing Vittorio's abilities on the light novel version. I don't remember if he ever used his Void spells in the anime, but in the light novel he had two. The first one was the World Door. Louise learned that one only in the anime. In the light novel Vittorio could open up portals between worlds, and he was the only one with the power to send Saito back home. The second spell was a spell that allowed him to send people into the memories of objects. He once sent Saito into Derflinger's memories, introducing him to the first Gandalfr and Brimir himself, and also sent King Joseph into the memory of his crown, allowing him to make peace with his brother and his father before he died.

I thought about going into more detail about that in the chapter as well as having Vittorio explain to Qrow what his powers as Windalfr would be, but it didn't fit with the pacing.

As usual, thank you Magery for both editing this and explaining to me the difference between the – and the —, and thank you to all my readers who have left reviews letting me know what you thought. Until the next chapter!


	5. Nora

Remnants of Another World

Chapter Five

Nora

It was amazing how quickly you could go from being on the coolest team in Beacon with all your friends around you every day to, well, crap.

"I didn't hear you say 'thank you,'" Louise said, sitting at a table with the smell of her breakfast mixing with the smell of everyone else's breakfast, forming one of those super-breakfast smells that you only get in cafeterias—sorry, _dining halls_ , because this was a classy academy full of class, and not just the kind where doctor-professors chugged rocket fuel and spouted history at you.

"And I didn't break your legs," Nora said. "We're both in the wrong."

Louise scowled. "If you're going to be like that, maybe you don't deserve breakfast."

"But breakfast is the most important meal of the day!" Nora protested. Louise glared at her, so she mumbled something that could be construed as an apology if you only heard what you wanted to, which fit Louise like a salmon-suit onesie.

Still, the bread-colored rock and the bowl of dishwater on the floor in front of her didn't come close to the breakfast standard she held herself to. "This sucks," she said. "What do you think we should do, Ren?"

"I think we should smash something," Ren said, his voice characteristically calm.

Nora rolled her eyes. "I know you're a figment of my imagination, but could you try to be a bit more realistic?" Everyone had their own ways of dealing with unexpected, compulsory, interplanetary travel, and imaginary Ren was hers.

"Very well," he said. "I think you should sit quietly and read something educational, and I'll make us pancakes."

Nora grinned. "Now that's the Ren I know and … know."

Ren sighed. "Nora, you know I'm a manifestation of your subconscious, and as such I am well aware how you—"

"La la la la la! Moving on, what should we do with that?" She pointed at the plate in front of her. _Rations._ That's what it was. Not food, but rations.

He frowned thoughtfully. "It looks healthy."

She shuddered. "You're right. I should get rid of it."

"No, I think you might want to eat it."

Nora rolled her eyes. "Why would I eat that junk when you're making me pancakes afterwards?"

Ren sighed. "Are you aware of the nutritional value of imaginary pancakes?"

"No, but it's got to be better than nothing, right?"

"By definition—"

"I got it! I know exactly what I should do with that roll and soup nonsense."

"This is going to end badly, isn't it?" Ren asked. "I'm leaving."

"Right, get back in the imaginary kitchen. And see if there are any blueberries in the fridge. Those are always good."

Ren sighed. "I'll see what I can do," he said, and disappeared in a puff of realism.

Nora picked up the bread-colored rock in one hand, the bowl of dishwater in the other, and grinned. "FOOD FIGHT!"

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This school turned out to be a lot less fun than Beacon. In Beacon, when you started a food fight, you put holes in the ceiling. Here, one kid did an admittedly convincing job of playing dead and another squawked about a ruined shirt.

On the bright side, Nora got challenged to a duel, so she had that going for her. On the other hand, Louise.

"Absolutely not!" the pink-haired girl yelled. "I absolutely forbid you from dueling Guiche!"

"Uh-huh, yeah, but there are two problems with that," Nora said. "One, I already told him I would, and two, I want to hit something with my hammer."

Louise jumped in front of her and put her hands on her hips. "No! If you want to get yourself killed fighting a mage, you'll have to go through me!"

Nora picked her up by her shoulders and set her aside. "That wasn't so hard. Thanks for the warm up."

"Wait! You could get hurt fighting him!"

"I'll be fine."

"I'm serious! If you … if you duel him, Nora, you're fired!"

Nora stopped and turned around. "I'm fired … from being your slave."

Louise frowned. "You're not my slave, you're my familiar. It's a very honorable position."

"Right. Well, Louise, there's something I've wanted to tell you since the day we met."

"Since yesterday?"

"It's been a long day."

"What is it?"

Nora pointed a finger at her. "You don't have the badges to command me!"

"What? Badges? You're not making any sense."

Nora nodded. "That's the sort of thing Ren would say, if he were here."

"Ren? Who's Ren?"

Nora resumed walking toward the dueling ground. Vestri Court, it was called. "Exactly."

WWW

"So, you decided to show up," Guiche said. "Have you decided to apologize?"

"Nope," Nora said. "I came to break your legs."

He scowled. "Then you shall pay for ruining my shirt! Even if the stains come out, the memory of your filth soaking through it has forever defiled it in memory! Also, Malicorne may or may not be dead. He's still in the infirmary."

Nora snorted. "What a drama queen!"

He scowled again. "In that case, I shall commence your punishment!"

"Hold on," Nora said. "First, why don't we make this more interesting?"

He frowned. "What, a duel to the death doesn't interest you?"

She laughed. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna kill you."

His face darkened. "I might."

"Yikes! That got morbid fast. Also, suicide doesn't solve anything, so …"

"That's not what I—"

"How about this? The loser has to call the winner the Queen of the Castle!"

"Why would I want you to call me the Queen of the Castle?"

Nora gave him a flat look. "Okay, spoiler warning, that's not gonna be an issue."

He glared at her. "Very well, peasant. I shall vanquish you, avenge my shirt, and … become Queen of the … hold on."

"Too late! You already agreed!" She pulled out Magnhild and grinned. "It's hammer time!"

Guiche sighed as though regretting challenging her, which was sad because the duel hadn't even started yet. "Your plebeian antics bore me, peasant. Perhaps my Valkyrie will teach you some respect." He waved his rose wand and a metal suit of armor appeared.

"Hold on, timeout," Nora said. "What did you call that thing?"

He blinked. "Valkyrie. It's a bronze golem I designed."

"Yeah, I can tell by the breastplate, but you named it after me?"

"What? No, if I did that, I would have named it Peasant, and that would be dumb."

"No, my _name's_ Valkyrie, Nora Valkyrie. You totally named your golem after me!" She smiled at him. "Are you into me? Are you trying to flirt with me? Did you challenge me to this duel because that's the only way you know how to express your emotions?"

"No!"

"You're blushing."

"I—you—I am not! I am red faced with anger!"

"You know, if you wanted to, you could have just asked me out. You're not my type, you seem a bit too wimpy, but I probably would have said yes out of pity. Honestly I'm more interested in breaking your legs than your heart."

"What do you mean, I'm not your type?" he demanded. "I own several mirrors, woman! I'm everyone's type!"

Nora rolled her eyes. "Okay, I didn't want to have to be the one to tell you this, but your mom only tells you that to make you feel better about yourself."

"What? My mother didn't—you don't …" He turned to his Valkyrie. "Kill her!"

The Valkyrie moved forward, and Nora brought Magnhild down on it. The suit of armor _telescoped_ into a flat piece of scrap, at the bottom of a crater. Nora waited for it to do something amazing, but instead it just lay there, inanimate.

"That's it?" she said, looking down into the hole. "That's _it_? I was kind of flattered when you named your thingy after me, but that's just _insulting_!" She pointed a finger at Guiche. "A Valkyrie should put up way more of a fight than that!"

Guiche stared wide-eyed at the crater and at her. "Well what—" His voice cracked. He coughed. "Well what one can't do, many can! Valkyries, go!"

He waved his silly flower again, and six suits of armor appeared. Nora swung her hammer twice, and they fell to pieces, helmets and breastplates flying over the heads of the crowd. She watched them, hoping they would reform, self destruct, or fuse into a super Valkyrie … but instead they just fell apart.

She turned to Guiche. "So do you have an awesome final attack or something? Because I didn't even get to use my grenade launcher."

Guiche swallowed. "I don't, um, I don't know what that is, but I do have something, yes. A last resort, for when a man is backed up to a wall and has nowhere else to go." He fell to his knees and threw his arms in the air. "I surrender! Please don't hurt me!"

Nora turned to Louise. "You're right, this was a bad idea." She walked up to Guiche. "So, what do you say?"

"Um, you won?"

She nodded. "And who's Queen of the Castle?"

"You are."

"And _who_ has two broken legs?"

"You do."

 _Smash!_

" _YAAAOOU!"_

"Try again!"

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A/n It's been a while, folks, but I'm back with Nora! Because everyone loves Nora. I figured that there were only so many things I could do with the initial summoning confrontation, so I decided to skip to the fun part. I may do this in the future, so don't be surprised if I start Yang off with the fight with Fouquet or Winter vs Wardes.

As usual, thank you, Magery for taking time from cramming for exams to edit this, and thank you, readers, who left reviews to let me know what you thought.


	6. Penny II

Remnant of a Another World

Chapter Six

Penny

"So let me get this straight," Guiche said. "You want me to summon one of my elegant Valkyries so your familiar can … play with it?"

Louise ground her teeth. There was nothing wrong with Guiche—nothing more than usual, at least—but her familiar had left her drained. Penny slept standing up for crying out loud! How was Louise supposed to get any sleep with that freckle-faced freak looming over her? She had lain awake half the night convinced that she was involved in some bizarre power struggle, refusing to tell Penny that, yes, it _did_ bother her before deciding that maybe her familiar wasn't playing mind games with her—maybe her familiar was just weird.

After that, Guiche's baseless arrogance was just a straw on the back of an already sorely burdened camel.

"She told me that she used to be in her small-town militia." Atlas. Wherever that was, it was too small a village for Louise to have heard of it. "Says she's combat …"

"I'm combat ready!"

Louise winced at her familiar's words. If she were in charge, she'd write an edict ordering anyone that cheerful to be drawn and quartered on the spot.

"Yes," she said slowly. "That."

Guiche smiled smugly. If Louise were in charge, she'd outlaw that, too. "So what do I get out of this?"

"Not a thing," Louise said. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to. I'll just wander off and complain about how stubborn you are to your girlfriend. And your other girlfriend. And you other—"

"Okay, okay." He scowled. "But for future reference, there's supposed to be a carrot to go with the stick."

"Yeah, I'll take the carrot and shove it up your—"

"Yes, thank you, the carrot is overrated anyway. I'll just assume that you got off on the wrong side of the bed this morning and move on."

She scoffed. "Something like that." Seriously, what kind of person slept standing up? That was something a horse did, and she was pretty sure Penny had her eyes open all night as well.

"Well, whatever it is, it sounds like a problem that I don't have to deal with." He stood up and called out to the other students in the courtyard. "Friends, classmates, potential lovers, I have an announcement to make. The familiar of Zero has challenged none other than my humble self to a duel! Anyone who wishes to witness the brief and likely brutal spectacle is welcome to follow me to Vestri Court."

With a flourish of his cape, he turned to leave. Louise hurried after him. "What was that?"

"Isn't it obvious?" he replied. "I'm milking the situation for all it's worth."

"What? What sort of milk do you expect from this?"

"The chance to be magnanimous in victory," he said. "And I can't choose to be magnanimous if I don't have the option to be … whatever the opposite of magnanimous is."

"Smug?" she offered.

"Ha. No, I'm always smug."

"Hadn't noticed."

"It's a side effect of being better than others." They arrived at Vestri Court, and Guiche created one of his golems. "Familiar of Zero," he said to Penny, having never bothered to learn her name. "As a mage I fight with magic, so your opponent will be this Valkyrie!"

Penny should have backed down then, but she seemed far too stupid to be intimidated. Instead, she smiled. "This is going to be so much fun!"

"Look," Louise said to Guiche. "Before this gets out of hand, we need to set up some ground rules. First and foremost—"

 _Crash!_

A piece of scrap metal slammed into the wall … that was made out of bronze and resembled the remains of a suit of armor. Penny stood alone in the middle of the courtyard, smiling politely.

"What," Louise started. "How … what?"

"It's like I said, Louise my friend," Penny said cheerfully. "I'm combat ready!"

Louise looked from her to the scrap heap by the wall, barely even annoyed at her familiar's catch phrase. "Hold on!" Guiche said, no longer smug. "There's no way a peasant could have defeated one of my Valkyries so easily! There must have been foul play involved!"

"No sir," Penny said politely. "I was not playing with birds, cross my heart."

Guiche blinked, trying to figure out what she meant, and Louise smacked her forehead in frustration. "Well, in any case," he said, "you have to do it again. I wasn't looking."

"Really?" Penny asked, her voice eager. "Thank you so much!"

"Yeah, we'll see who's thanking who when this is done," he muttered. "Rise, Valkyrie!"

A second Valkyrie grew out of a rose petal, identical to the first. A bronze golem was a dot class spell; though they weren't very strong, they were relatively sturdy, and an ordinary commoner shouldn't have been able to—

Penny jumped and closed the distance of about twenty feet, doing a flip in mid air. She grabbed the Valkyrie by the breastplate—no, she _crushed_ the breastplate in one hand, and in one fluid motion she hurled it into the wall right next to the first one, clanging like a cymbal.

Louise stared. Penny was the opposite of muscular, a slight, slender thing, but in terms of strength she was an _ogre_! What _was_ she?

Someone in the crowd laughed. "Looks like she's got you beat, Guiche!"

His face turned red. "I was, of course, going easy on you," he said to Penny, "on account of me being a _gentleman_. But if you wish for a challenge, then as a gentleman I will oblige you. Let's see how you fair against _five_ Valkyries!"

He waved his wand, scattering flower petals around the courtyard. Each one formed itself into a bronze golem, surrounding Penny. As one, all five charged, spear butts aimed at her.

Penny jumped out of the way, flipping backwards, as graceful as a … well, Louise didn't know of any birds that could do backflips. As graceful as an acrobat, she supposed, but she didn't know of any acrobats who could jump ten feet in the air without magic either—though, honestly, at this point Penny could have hovered in midair and Louise wouldn't have been surprised.

Instead, Penny did something that did surprise her. Her backpack opened up on its own and a dagger floated into the air by itself. And then it unfolded into a sword. And then it separated into ten swords. And then she started fighting back.

The swords spun in a circle, blades outwards like a hula hoop of death. At a gesture of her hand, the blades whistled through the air into the group of golems, slicing through them, showering the grass with sparks. At another gesture they came back, shredding them, and finally they threw themselves at them, two to a golem, impaling each in the head and in the chest.

The ten swords floated back to her, collapsed into one, folded in half, and disappeared into her backpack. She grinned and bowed. "Thank you for the wonderful time."

WWW

A/n I was going to write a Ruby or a Neo chapter, but then this happened.

As usual, thank you to everyone who has left reviews, and thank you to Magery for editing this.


	7. Velvet

Remnants of Another World

Chapter Seven

Velvet

Between the nightmares from beyond the city and the finest Atlesian technology turned against them, the few remaining students of Beacon were struggling to stand. Nora went down, and Ren went down a moment after her. Coco unloaded a stream of bullets at the Paladin, her gatling gun buzzing like a hornet's nest, but they ricocheted off of it without even scratching the paint.

"Uh, this is bad!" Neptune called out, holding his ground but unable to push the machine back.

However, Coco wasn't worried, and if she wasn't, then Velvet wasn't either. Sure, she wanted to run—she was part rabbit for Dust's sake—but being part of the team meant staying _with_ the team, and no matter how bad things looked, Team CFVY always pulled through.

And, most importantly (according to Coco), they made it look good.

"Well, I guess now is a better time than any." Coco stopped firing and turned around. "Velvet!"

Nothing more needed to be said. Velvet always stayed in the background in team fights, not because she was weak—but because she wasn't. She was CFVY's eleventh hour; their trump card waiting for the most dramatic moment.

She blinked in surprise. "Really?"

Coco gave her a single nod. "Just make 'em count."

Velvet took a deep breath and did something she had never done before.

She stepped forward into the fight.

She should have been terrified. Every fibre of her being should have been screaming at her to run—but instead excitement filled her heart. As a Faunus, she had grown up knowing how different she was from everyone else, and she'd always wanted to blend in.

"What are you doing?" Weiss demanded. "She's going to get hurt!"

But Coco was the opposite. She wanted Velvet to stand out, not to bully her into it, but to build her up. And as time went on, Velvet's timid nature and Coco's cool confidence merged until her ability to blend into the crowd became a style all of its own.

Coco smirked. "Just watch."

Since she had arrived at Beacon, she had always kept her eyes on others, instinctively memorizing not just the fighting styles of the other students, but the way the walked, the way they stood, the way their hands fidgeted when they were nervous. Right now, though? Right now, they were watching her.

And then she vanished.

"So, was that part of the plan?" Neptune asked. "Or should we panic?"

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"Now remember, no matter what steps out of the portal, you have to kiss it as soon as you can," Matilda said. "Anything could pop out, and some of the familiars are dangerous, but you have a few seconds while the thing's disoriented. Even a dragon will be confused right after it's summoned, and you don't want a giant, fire-breathing monster to collect its wits without a contract seal."

Tiffania nodded, eyes wide and earnest. "Do you really think I'll get something like that?"

"Doubt it. No offense, kid, but you don't have a fire-breathing monster personality. Knowing you, you'll probably end up with some cute, cuddly forest critter, but you'll still have to kiss it before it has a chance to run away." Matilda hoped Tiffania got something closer to a cute, cuddly bear than a cute, cuddly squirrel, because her mixed elven heritage left her vulnerable. A stranger would try to kill her on sight for her pointed ears, but she didn't have the Ancient Magic that made elves dangerous to defend herself with either.

"I wish you could stay," Tiffania said softly.

Matilda smiled. "Sorry, but I have a job lined up in Tristain. I'll back in a few weeks, a month tops." She still wasn't sure what alias she'd go with, now that Demoux was off the list. Longueville, maybe. She'd never been Longueville before. But she'd always be Fouquet. She'd spent too much time building up the infamy of the master thief to stop now.

"And we're nearly out of money," Tiffania said.

Matilda nodded. At first she was happy someone was standing up to Albion's royal family, but as the civil war waged on, more and more dead soldiers left their children with nothing but dirty streets. The orphanage was Matilda's fault, really. She had brought back a five-year-old who was coughing up blood so Tiffania could heal him with her mother's amulet, but afterwards, Tiffania wouldn't send him away, and Matilda … she never could turn her back on them. They had over a dozen shrieking, giggling brats now, and that number would only grow until the war was over.

That mean they needed money, and _that_ meant stealing. She'd never tell Tiffania that, though. The girl was too sweet for her own good.

"The book you got me said I should speak an incantation before the contract," Tiffania said.

Matilda rolled her eyes. "That book was written by a noble, and most nobles are idiots." The book was stolen, too, but she left that out. "Nobles like to drown everything in ceremony whether it needs it or not, and this doesn't need it at all."

Tiffania nodded. "So, when you summoned your—"

"Oh, for the love of Brimir, stop stalling and summon it already!" They'd be here all day if she waited for Tiffania to ease into it.

Tiffania cast the spell, and Matilda readied her wand just in case she choked. She was prepared to protect the girl if she summoned something dangerous, and immobilize the summon if it tried to run, but she was not ready for what came next.

A girl stumbled out of the portal, slender and about Tiffania's own age. She had long brown hair, brown foreign clothes, and brown eyes opened wide with shock. And bunny ears. But those were fake, a cute accessory. They had to be.

Before Matilda or the summoned girl could say a word, Tiffania, true to her instructions, leapt forward and kissed the girl smack on the lips.

WWW

They were real. Velvet sometimes got tired of saying that, because even people who knew about Faunus felt the need to touch them to make sure, and no one in Albion had ever heard the term.

Of course, they had never heard about Grimm either, and living in a world without monsters was worth a few lengthy explanations. Part of her felt bad for being yanked away from all her friends at what Coco would call the most dramatic moment, but she couldn't hold a grudge about being drafted to protect an orphanage of small children without feeling like a horrible person.

And she liked it here in Westwood. The children loved her because of her cooking, which was ironic because she didn't have any cooking skills—but her Semblance allowed her to memorise the last three seasons of _Survival Chef_ with as much effort as it took her to learn Tiffania's ability to play the harp.

And Tiffania was beautiful, through and through. Her music was beautiful, her face was beautiful, her heart was beautiful. She was a bit clumsy, though, on account of being a tad top heavy, but Velvet would cut out her own tongue before saying that out loud.

Even Matilda was likable in her own way. As brusque as she was, her heart was in the right place, and Velvet was sad to see her go when Matilda had to travel south to a new job opportunity.

Really, the only thing Velvet didn't like about her new life in Westwood was a few bad headaches, which Tiffania could take care of. She had a magical ring, inherited from her mother, that could cure any injury.

Even caffeine withdrawal.

WWW

A few days after Matilda left—about a week after Velvet arrived—they ran out of carrots. She knew when she was living a cliché, but they were good for your eyes! People always talked about how Faunus had better night vision than humans did, but that was because humans never ate their vegetables.

Besides, you couldn't make carrot cake without carrots. It was nearly the third most important ingredient, and that meant they had to leave Westwood to buy supplies.

"Shouldn't one of us stay behind to watch the little ones?" Velvet asked.

"We won't be gone long," Tiffania said, "and they can look after themselves for a few hours." She raised her voice so the children could hear. "Until we get back, Aideen's in charge."

"Yes!" a ten-year-old girl with wild frizzy hair cried out. "My reign of terror begins now!"

"But you have to promise to be good."

"I will, Tifa."

Tiffania smiled. "See? They'll be fine."

"What if someone comes while we're gone?" Velvet asked.

"That happens sometimes," Tiffania said. "Last time a robber came while I was gone, he searched the place for valuables, but all he could find were turnips and orphans. He actually ended up leaving money behind."

Velvet was about to ask about Grimm before she remembered Albion didn't have any. A world without Grimm. She wondered if she'd ever get used to that. It was good, but Velvet was a Huntress. Without Grimm, what was the point of her?

The only Huntress, the only Faunus, and beside her was the only half-elf. They walked down a trail so grown it could barely be called that, both of them wearing wide brimmed hats to cover their ears. That felt wrong for her. At Beacon, most of the Faunus had hidden their heritage, and any number of them could have surgically removed an extra pair of ears or horns, but Velvet _never_ did. She never had the courage to protest or fight, but she could stand.

Also, the school uniforms didn't allow hats.

Soon the skyline of Saxe-Gotha came into view. "Tiffania," Velvet said. "What happens if I lose my hat?"

"I don't know," she said. "People might laugh if they think they're fake."

Velvet nodded. "And if you lose yours?"

For a moment Tiffania didn't speak. "When the king found out about my mother, he had her killed, my father killed, and our entire household, including Matilda's family."

Velvet felt cold. Being part elf, it seemed, was worse than being a Faunus. She felt her camera case to reassure herself, just in case a gust of wind tried to kill them.

Tiffania, though, seemed far less worried. She had done this before, and all she had to do was keep her hat on. Saxe-Gotha was surprisingly rustic for its size, reminding Velvet that Albion didn't have electricity or, judging by the smell, plumbing. Horses pulled carriages through cobblestone streets, and beggars lined the sidewalks.

Velvet stayed close to her friend, trying to keep an eye on everything at once. "Is the city always like this?"

Tiffania shook her head. "It's gotten worse since the war started."

"Right, the, um, the Reconquista?"

She nodded. Velvet had heard a few things about the civil war, though Westwood was isolated enough to keep her from seeing it first-hand. Tiffania was neutral, and had taken orphans from either side. The Royalists had already tried to kill her a few years ago, so they weren't on her side, and technically she was third in line to the throne right after the prince, so the Reconquista wouldn't take her in either. Finally, she had pointed ears, so both sides would kill her on sight regardless.

A crowd waited for them in the town square, surrounding an argument they could barely see over the shoulders of those ahead of them. They should have moved on. They were vulnerable enough without getting into trouble, but they couldn't help themselves. They'd just find out what was going on, and then they would leave.

"… all way! Honor, tradition, all for the false priest!" a man said, though with his back turned to Velvet, she couldn't say how old he was. His clothes, once fine, were ragged and stained as though he had made his bed in the gutter. His swaying motions and violent gestures marked him as drunk, either on liquor or simple rage.

His opponent looked to be his opposite in every way. She stood proudly, wearing a white military suit without the whisper of a wrinkle and her light blonde hair in a tight bun. "Look at yourself, old man. Do not embarrass yourself further."

"I'm not the one who should be embarrassed, girl! You're the embarrassment! You and every Reconquista turncoat shame everything Albion stands for!"

"Enough! I will hear no more treason, even from my own father."

The man spat. "I am father to no traitor, Alexandra!"

The woman fell silent for a moment, and her next words were so quiet Velvet could barely hear them over the breathing and shuffling of the crowd. "Then I regret nothing." She swung her wand in a wide arc, creating a gust of wind as hard as a brick wall. The spell was meant for the man, but it hit a wedge of the crowd as well, knocking Velvet, Tiffania, and countless others to the ground.

The townsquare reached a crescendo as everyone started screaming at once. No, Velvet realized. They weren't screaming—she was just hearing them with a second pair of ears. _Oh no._

She activated her Semblance, channeling Fox's unique style of martial arts to pull herself out from underneath the man who had fallen half on top of her. Her hat! She needed her hat! It was somewhere around …

Suddenly it didn't matter anymore, because Tiffania's hat fell off too, and someone noticed. Then they started screaming for real.

"Elf! Elf!"

Tiffania, wide eyed and still on the ground, grabbed her ears, desperately trying to hide them. "No." Her voice came out as a whimper. "No."

As the panicked masses pulled away, Velvet stepped forward and offered Tiffania her hand. "There's not much point in hiding for either of us now," she said, smiling. The crowd was frightened now, but that fear would turn to anger like lightning to thunder. Of course, if Velvet could milk their terror for an extra minute, it would make their escape that much easier.

She pulled Tiffania to her feet with one hand, and Yatsuhashi's weapon, a curved sword larger than she was made of hard, blue light appeared in her other. "What say you we get out of here?"

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A/n So, my editor is Australian and Velvet's voice actor is Australian, so I thought, "Great! When I write Velvet, I can have her use Australian spelling instead of my normal barbarism of American English." Then, like two words turn out to be different. Oh well. At least I got to include a sort of cliff hanger, so that was fun.

By the way, I have a sort of head canon of Tiffania actually doing stuff in Albion instead of waiting for the plot to come for her, because there's no point in letting Louise have all the fun (and suffering). For those of you who are interested, I have no idea what chapter is going to come out next, but I'm partially done with Ruby, Weiss, and Summer, so it may (or may not) be one of those three.

Thank you everyone who left reviews, and thank you Magery for editing this to make it readable.


	8. Neo

Remnants of Another World

Chapter Eight

Neo

Neo floated gently through the night. She wasn't worried. The most the swarms of Grimm could do to her was give her a ride, and Roman was fine. She hated being dragged off when the scythe girl was literally hanging on the edge, but if anyone deserved the chance to kill her on his own, it was Roman.

No, she wasn't worried. Annoyed? Definitely.

A passing Nevermore thought she would make a nice snack and flew at her, beak open. _I'm on your side, idiot!_ She closed her umbrella and dropped out of the way—and landed in the middle of a grassy field. On a sunny day.

She blinked, forcing her mismatched eyes to adjust to the light. _Nighttime. Daytime. Nighttime. Daytime?_

She didn't see any Grimm or anything she recognized, just a bunch of kids in a school uniform she didn't recognize. Pleated skirts, white shirts, black capes. She wasn't in Beacon, of that she was sure. Haven, maybe. Right. She was in one of the other schools where the kids were practicing their Semblances, and one of them had the Summon Psychopath ability.

Well, wherever she was, if they all appeared out of nowhere to her, then she appeared out of nowhere to them, so she did the one thing she could think of: her stage bow.

They laughed. _Thank you, thank you._

One of them, a girl about her height with bright pink hair walked up to her. "Who are you?"

Neo cocked her head. _Cute_ and _polite._

" _What_ are you?"

 _What_? Now _that_ was just rude.

"Are you a peasant?"

Yup, the stranger was _not_ making a good first impression.

"Ha!" someone in the crowd called out. "Louise summoned a commoner!"

"No I didn't!" the girl, Louise, protested. "I made a mistake! Professor Colbert, can I try again?"

She had a short back and forth with a middle aged man with a _very_ shiny head that could have been summed up in one word: no.

"Aw," Louise said, pouting, stomping back to Neo. "I'm blaming you for this." And with that, she kissed her.

 _Hello to you, too._ Well, if that was how they greeted people around here, why not? Neo kissed her back. Hard.

"Mmph?"

Louise struggled a bit, but Neo held her firm. _No, we're done when I say we're done._ And she wasn't about to start talking anytime soon. _One, two, three …_

"Um, Miss Valliere?" the professor said. "I think that's enough." _Eight, nine, ten …_

"Mm-mmhhm!" _Nineteen, twenty, twenty-one …_

"I'm serious, Louise, this is more than adequate for the contract ritual."

 _Thirty-one, thirty-two._ Thirty-two teeth. Good dental work. She let go, and Louise fell flat on her butt. The girl wiped her mouth on her sleeve and glared at her as though Neo had just killed someone.

Neo smiled back and winked at her. _Just you wait._

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"Can I take it by your silence that you understand your role in this relationship?"

Louise had led her to her bedroom and proceeded to "lay down the law." Not the smartest thing she could have done, but about on par with her average so far.

"If you understand, say yes. Or nod. Or do _something_ besides sitting there smiling like an idiot!"

Louise wasn't a bad looking girl, really. She had the porcelain doll look down pat, but her perpetual glare wasn't doing her any favors. A smile on her face would improve things immensely.

Half aware of what she was doing, she changed her appearance. She had a knack for illusions. Not hallucinations, that was Emerald's shtick. Long ago, she used to have to focus on every change she made to reality, but now it was nearly reflexive. She had changed her eyes so many times, she couldn't even remember what their normal color was, if _normal_ was still a word that could be applied any more than someone had a _normal_ pair of socks.

Without moving, her hair changed from chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla to just strawberry pink, her eyes turned to reddish-brown, and her clothes mimicked Louise's uniform, right down to her cape.

Louise's eyes widened as Neo turned into a perfect reflection of herself, but that surprise turned to anger when she noticed Neo's chest. They were about the same height, but Louise had breasts like a boy, and Neo … didn't. She could have hidden them, but where was the fun in that?

"That's it!" Louise said, crossing her arms across her own chest defensively. "I don't care if you're a mage, a changeling, or just a peasant with enchanted clothes, but whatever you are, you _are_ my familiar, and I will not be mocked by you!"

She opened her wardrobe and pulled out a horsewhip. Yes, a horsewhip. It was all Neo could do to keep from laughing. She didn't know what was funnier—that the girl actually _had_ a whip in her bedroom, or that she meant to use it on her. Well, just for the heck of it, Neo let her.

She didn't know what Louise expected. That she'd lie down and take it, probably. But not that she would shatter like glass. They never did, and for Neo, it never got old. Really, it was a simple matter of placing an illusion in front of her and leaving, which, like changing her appearance, had become half a reflex.

 _CRRSH!_

The illusion fell to pieces like a broken window, as fragile as a lie, shards of color scattering across the floor.

Louise screamed before spotting Neo on the windowsill, back in her normal appearance. "What … how … what _are_ you?"

Neo smiled and made a kissy face, making Louise turn pale. _Yes, this_ is _going to be fun._

The thought lasted until she looked out the window, and saw something in the night sky that never should have been. Two moons loomed overhead, one blue and the other pink, both massive and as whole as the sun. Neo looked frantically from Louise to the sky.

"What? What are you on about now?"

Neo pointed outside.

"I think we've played enough charades for one night. Honestly, I think I'm good for the rest of the month."

Neo got up, grabbed Louise, and dragged her to the window.

"Ah! No, stop! This isn't funny, familiar! Let go! I can't fly! Let me go!"

Neo flipped her onto her back, held her half outside by the front of her shirt, and pointed at the moons.

"Don't drop me! Let me in! Let me in! I won't make you sleep on the floor, okay? I'll let you sleep in my bed, just don't kill me!"

She didn't notice the moons in the sky. Or maybe she didn't care. Maybe the nights were always like that around here. Maybe Neo wasn't even on Remnant anymore.

She felt sick as she pulled Louise back into the room. Lost. _A brand new world._ If Roman were here, he'd laugh and call this an opportunity to … she didn't know, she'd never see him again, and she would _never_ find out.

She laughed. No sound escaped her dead throat when she laughed, any more than when she cried or screamed, but she laughed all the same, her body doubled over and convulsing, tears of bitter mirth sparkling in her mismatched eyes. Louise backed into a corner, looking as though she expected Neo to explode into a killing spree.

 _Not tonight._

Tonight she was tired. She transformed her clothes into a fluffy pink onesie, crawled into bed, and, somehow, fell asleep.

Louise didn't, though. She seemed terrified for some reason.

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A/n To everyone who suffers under the impression that I plan things, here is irrevocable proof that I do not. I had Ruby, Weiss, and Summer half written by the time I published my last chapter, and instead of finishing one of those, I wrote half of Pyrrha II, started Cinder, and ended up doing Neo. Still, she was fun to write, so I have no regrets.

The first draft of this story was a piece of cake, but then I started a discussion with my editor about what Neo's Semblance actually was. I always thought that she changed her appearance with Dust like Cinder did, and her Semblance was the ability to shatter when hit and reform herself. Magery thought that it was illusions, and we shared a back and forth until we arrived at an explanation that explained everything she could and could not do. If she can shatter, why would she bother running from Raven? If she can create illusions, why not just go invisible or make illusionary blindfolds over her enemies?

And who is Neo, really? Is she mute, or does she just choose not to talk? I know her name is a reference to neapolitan ice cream, but could it double as a reference to the Matrix? The Matrix, is, after all, a story about illusions that can kill you and impossible martial arts. Is she based off of the Little Mermaid? No, really, that's my favorite headcanon for her. She was a fish Faunus, and Ursula, the less than reputable surgeon, operated on her to make her look human, but the process of removing her gills also took away her ability to speak. I mean, she could be Humpty Dumpty instead, but I like the Little Mermaid idea better. Then I found out that she's actually an ice cream Faunus. Just ask Rumbleinthedumbles.

Anyway, I would like to thank everyone for their encouraging comments and constructive criticism, and especially thank Magery for proofreading this to make it readable and coherent.


	9. Pyrrha II

Remnants of Another World

Chapter Nine

Pyrrha II

As long as the birds sang, they were safe. At least, that's how Pyrrha hoped it worked. In Remnant, the birds would fall silent in the presence of Grimm—how they responded to threats in Halkeginia, she didn't know. Still, the beauty of their calls and whistles soothed her.

She rode in a wagon through the forest with Louise. They had gotten to know each other better since her arrival; the girl was proud, stubborn, and refined, exactly the same way Nora wasn't. In fact, in some ways Louise reminded her of Weiss from Team RWBY. She had progressed fantastically since Pyrrha started training her to use her Aura, and she could only wonder what Louise might become in time.

Kirche and Tabitha rode with them in the wagon. Tabitha was quiet and introverted while Kirche was the complete opposite. Tabitha had barely said two words to Louise and Pyrrha, and there were generations of bad blood between Louise's and Kirche's families, but both of them had volunteered to help when Louise decided to go after the thief Fouquet.

Longueville, the headmaster's secretary, held the reins, leading them to the cabin in the woods where Fouquet had been spotted. They were going to find the place and retrieve the relic Fouquet had stolen. At least, that was the plan.

Still, she wished she had a weapon.

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Colbert wished he had given her a weapon. There was honor, or at least prestige, in forging a weapon for Gandalfr herself, even if she didn't yet know who she was. The Colbert of twenty years ago would have jumped at the opportunity, but that Colbert had been a warrior. Now he was a teacher, a coward, a man who knew that killing some to save others left nothing but ash.

Still, the blueprints Pyrrha left behind were a miracle of engineering. One hundred and eight interlocking parts, precise to a thousandth of an inch, combined into a sword that could become a spear that could become a rifle. He should have thrown them out when he told her that he wouldn't build it for her, but _Founder_ , it was a work of art!

And then there was the bribe she offered. " _I enjoyed your lecture, Professor,"_ she had said after class one day. " _I didn't expect to find a steam engine in this country."_

She had a name for it. Colbert hadn't even thought to call it anything. Sure, he saw possibilities in using fire and water to create motion, but he was a scientist! He saw possibilities in everything. _One hundred and eight interlocking parts, a weapon more advanced and elegant than anything ever seen._ He shivered.

" _Oh, you have these where you're from? And they work?"_

 _She nodded. "We used to use coal and more advanced forms of energy propellent to move trains and ships."_ After an explanation about what a train was, Colbert grew convinced that Pyrrha was from a futuristic kingdom beyond imagination. No, not futuristic. Halkeginia had barely changed since the time of the Founder, and it seemed content to fester in its own traditions for another six millennia to come. Pyrrha's country was _advanced_.

" _Though honestly," she continued, "these days we use these sorts of engines to generate electricity, and then go from there."_

Hook, line, and … " _Electricity? You mean lightning? You can create_ lightning _without magic? With just fire and water?"_ He was a fire mage, but any commoner with dry wood could make fire. Lightning seemed divine, straight from the clouds of heaven. Brimir's wrath.

" _Of course," she said, smiling. "It's a basic law of electromagnetics that just as a moving electric field creates a magnetic field, a moving magnetic field creates an electric field."_

He felt like a beggar following a noblewoman tossing diamonds. He knew what electricity was, though that was more strictly under the domain of wind mages, but what was an electric _field_? He had a mental image of a farmer's field with lightning rods instead of wheat, but how would that _move_?

" _How would you, hypothetically, build this …"_

" _Generator? I confess, I'm not an engineer, but I've always had a special interest in magnetic theory. I think I could help you through the basics. Though, if it's not too much, I would like your help with something in return."_ And that's when she had brought out the stack, page after page of blueprints, designs for a weapon without equal, not in terms of power but in terms of grace, a mix of beauty and deadliness that never should have existed. Every fiber of his being wanted to say yes, but he had walked those fields of ash before, and he would _never_ go back.

He had made her a shield, though. That was the least he could do. Still, he felt guilty about letting her and three of his students go to face Fouquet. Had he been braver, he would have gone instead, but again, he was a coward.

Of course, both Kirche and Tabitha were extremely skilled mages, and Pyrrha herself was the legendary Gandalfr. He was sure they'd be fine.

WWW

They were not fine. They recovered the Staff of Destruction from the cabin without incident, but then Fouquet's golem ripped the roof off from over their heads. Neither Kirche's fire nor Tabitha's icicles could harm the thing, and all Pyrrha had was a shield.

"Retreat," Tabitha said, her voice absolutely calm.

Pyrrha nodded. She held the case that contained the Staff of Destruction, and that was all they had come for. Kirche ran out the front door and Tabitha went out the back while Pyrrha remained where she stood, waiting for an opening.

The golem raised a fist and struck. It was strong and faster than it looked, but also clumsy. It telegraphed every move, and so Pyrrha dodged it easily.

She ran up the construct's arm—shield in one hand and case in the other—before it could react. It looked like it was made of dirt, but most of its body was stone. It had the general shape of a human, but with longer arms, shorter legs, and lump with black pits for eyes instead of a head. She jumped off of the golem, flipping in midair before landing.

"Did you get it?" Louise asked, who had been standing watch outside the cabin. "You got it! Now what?"

"Now we return victorious!" Kirche said, running past them.

"Really?" Louise said. "It looks like you're running away."

"We have what we came for," Pyrrha said. "Let's go."

"We can't do that!" Louise protested. "Nobles do not retreat."

"What, are you worried you're going to fail at that too?" Kirche asked over her shoulder.

"You know what, you can shut up!" Louise turned back to Pyrrha, ignoring the golem lumbering toward them. "If the golem is here, then Fouquet is too. Even if we don't capture him, we can still show him not to mess with us!"

Pyrrha considered that, but something more important grabbed her attention. "Where's Longueville?"

Longueville had stayed behind to investigate the surrounding woods. If Fouquet was close enough to create the golem but wasn't in the cabin … Louise's eyes widened. "Do you thing she ran into—"

Pyrrha threw herself into Louise, knocking her out of the way of the golem's attack. "It's possible," she admitted.

"Then we have to stay!"

"Okay."

"Don't fight me on this, Pyrrha! We can't leave until … you're not fighting me on this."

"No. Your reasoning is sound. What's the plan?"

"Plan? Um, I don't know. I haven't thought that far ahead."

"Then go grab the others and work something out. I'll buy time." Pyrrha ran to the golem to do just that. It turned on her, swinging a massive fist at her. She rolled under the attack and sprinted between its legs, slashing at it with the edge of her shield. Chips of stone flew off from it, but for a construct so large it was barely a scratch.

Still, she had distracted it, and that was all she needed to do. With no weapon and so little metal around, she doubted if she could destroy it if she wanted to, but she could dance with it well into the night.

She jumped into the air and landed on the thing's head, slashing at its eyes, and then leapt out of the way as the golem smashed itself in the face trying to hit her. Chips sprayed off of it, but they reformed, making the golem whole again.

 _You're made of stone, you can regenerate, and you're the size of a house. Nora would love this._ Pyrrha was considered the strongest member of Team JNPR, but strength was more dynamic than that. She was quick and precise, making her effective against human sized opponents, but such a massive foe was best matched against raw power.

Louise ran up to her. "Tabitha and Kirche are in the woods looking for Longueville. We have until they get back to take this thing down! Any ideas?"

Pyrrha could stall the golem just fine on her own, but if Fouquet was healing it, then if they did enough damage to the golem, they could drain Fouquet dry. At least, she thought so, assuming the rules of magic here were at least as logical as the ones back home. "I have one," she said. "You're skilled enough with Aura to take at least one hit, I think." They had been going out at night for the last few weeks to train, just like she had with Jaune. Louise had no weapon specialty and no known Semblance, but she could use her Aura as a shield.

Louise frowned. "I don't like where this is going, but go on."

"I'm going to launch you onto the golem's face, and you're going to cast a spell at it, point blank."

"Right. Which one?"

"What?"

"Which spell do you want me to cast?"

"Don't they all do the same thing when you cast them?"

Her lips curled in a pout. "It might not."

"Hope it does. We don't need skill or subtlety here. We just need power, and I know I've told you this before, but you have an incredible amount."

The golem struck again, but both of them dodged it. Louise hopped five feet up in the air, a feat that she would have called impossible for her a few weeks ago, and Pyrrha dove under her so Louise landed on her shield. They both took a deep breath, and Pyrrha shoved toward the sky, launching Louise upwards another fifty.

As a mage, levitation was just another spell that Louise couldn't cast, but she had flown before. Sometimes someone else would cast the spell on her and she would float weightlessly through the air, or she would ride a winged beast like a dragon or her mother's manticore.

This was nothing like that at all. There was no control, no safeguards; it was a leap of faith.

And she loved it.

She reached the zenith of her arc and began to fall. The golem looked up at her and raised a fist to swat her out of the air. Ah. That was unfortunate. Louise realized the fundamental problem of committing yourself to the air without the ability to fly: there was no such thing as dodging.

Just as she braced herself for impact, a whirlwind engulfed her, flaring her skirt up and slowing her fall so the golem's attack missed her entirely.

Then she landed right on the construct's face, her Aura absorbing the impact as the shock went through her legs. _No skill. No subtlety._ She stabbed the golem with her wand, planting it in the dirt. "Fireball!" No heat, not flame, just an awesome concussive blast. Chips of stone flew in every direction, but Louise stayed on.

She cast another spell. "Transmute!" The golem didn't change from one substance to another, it just broke down under the force of the explosion. It staggered and swayed, but Louise held on.

"Silence!" Ha! No, just the opposite, a deafening burst as earth crunched beneath her. She slipped a little, but she didn't lose her grip.

"Levitation!" Instead, she fell, the remnant of the golem no longer capable of holding her up. She stood in a pile of inert dirt that had once dared to threaten her.

"Louise!" Pyrrha said, running up to her. "I knew you could do it." She brushed a bit of gravel out of her hair. Louise knew she probably looked a mess, covered in dirt and debris, but she didn't care. She felt lightheaded a giddy. She had _won_!

"I _did_ it." She barely believed it herself.

"How did you slow your fall like that? Was that your Semblance?"

Louise blinked and shook herself. "Right. Um, I think that was Tabitha. What's a Semblance?"

"I'll explain later," Pyrrha said, spotting Tabitha emerging from the forest. "Tabitha! Did you find Longueville?"

"No, but I did," Kirche said, coming from the other side of the clearing. She was holding her hands above her head with Longueville behind her. "I found Fouquet, too. The bad news? They're the same person."

"What?" Louise asked. "Kirche, don't even joke like … oh no, you got captured, didn't you?"

Kirche gave a shrug. "Full on damsel in distress. I wouldn't mind so much if there was a knight in shining armor to come to my rescue, but while Tabitha is technically a knight, and Pyrrha _is_ wearing armor, that's not really what I'm going for."

"Founder, you talk a lot," Longueville said behind her.

Kirche shrugged again. "It's one of my best features. And, trust me, the competition there is fierce."

"Quiet, Kirche, you're not helping." Founder, it felt good to say that. Petty, perhaps, but true. "Why are you doing this, Longueville?"

"Doing what?" Longueville said conversationally. "Stealing the Staff of Destruction or luring you kids to it?"

The report that Fouquet had been spotted near the cabin had come through her, Louise realized. "Yes."

"Money and money. It seemed valuable, but after I got it, I couldn't figure out how to use it. I figured that if I led one of the the teachers her, they'd demonstrate its use against my golem, but it turns out your teachers are all gutless cowards. And Osmond, who's just a pervert. Honestly I'm impressed that you kids came instead—you managed to prove that you three are dumber than all your teachers put together."

"Thanks. Jerk." Also, there were four of them, not three. "Now what?"

"Now," Longueville said, "you all drop your wands unless you want to see your friend die. Your shield, too," she added to Pyrrha. "I've seen what you can do with it."

Tabitha let go of her staff, and Pyrrha dropped her shield. Louise didn't move.

"Didn't you hear me?" Longueville said.

"Oh, I heard you," Louise said. "I'm just considering my options." There were a lot of people she didn't like at school, and Kirche had always been number one. If something tragic befell Kirche, Louise doubted she'd need therapy, especially if she had the glory of defeating the infamous thief Fouquet and recovering the Staff of Destruction to ride on.

"What options?" Longueville asked. "Either you surrender, or your friend dies."

Louise cocked her head. "Friend? Friend is such a _strong_ word."

"Seriously, Zero?" Kirche said. "You're going to do this now?"

"I haven't done anything yet, but good job on calling me names at a time like this. Way to make my decision easier by reminding me why I don't like you."

"Yeah, well, if you ever need a reminder on why no one likes you, it's because of this! I actually have friends I don't own. Like Tabitha. See Tabitha? That's her murder face. I know this because _friendship_."

Louise looked at Tabitha, who was staring completely emotionlessly. At her. The girl had never been very expressive, but she also never made extended eye contact with anything besides a book.

Louise felt a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, Louise," Pyrrha said. Her voice sounded strong and gentle, a voice that made everyone else sound like whining brats in comparison. "We'll get through this. I promise."

"Well, I suppose this _is_ the honorable thing to do," Louise said grudgingly. "But for the record, _I_ didn't screw everything up. I'm pretty sure a lot of people just lost a bet."

"Finally," Longueville said. "That was far more tedious than it needed to be. Now, Pyrrha, set down the Staff of Destruction—gently! It could be fragile. Good. Now the rest of you, back away, and keep your hands where I can see them."

They complied, and Longueville pushed Kirche forward until she reached the metal case. "This whole thing has been a mess. Now I have to go back, explain how you all died, and convince those old idiots to send _another_ search party into an ambush. Really, it's all one big headache."

"So you _are_ going to kill us anyway," Pyrrha said. She didn't sound scared. Her voice was completely calm. No, not calm; _ice_. She spoke as though she were passing judgement instead of receiving it.

Longueville cocked her head. "Were you under the impression that you were useful alive?"

Pyrrha shook her head. "No. I just wanted to make sure what you were willing to do. Thank you."

And with that, the case containing the Staff of Destruction came to life. A black penumbra surrounded it and it floated into the air. Longueville backed away from it in panic and raised her wand, but she wasn't fast enough. It crashed into her, knocking her to the ground. It rose into the air and slammed down into her.

Pyrrha stepped forward, examining her wand which was snapped as cleanly as her arm. "Oh dear. I did not mean to break you so much. If it's any consolation, I do not normally fight people who are so fragile."

"What—what was that?" Louise demanded. "How did you _do_ that?"

"Ah, that. I used my Semblance. That's one of the more advanced forms of Aura training."

"Wait, Semblance?" Kirche said. "Aura? I don't know what you two are talking about, but I know magic when I see it. I thought you summoned a commoner."

"It's not magic," Pyrrha said. "It's a Semblance."

"And she's not a commoner," Louise said. "She's a _Huntress_." Though she had to admit, making inanimate objects attack your enemies _seemed_ an awful lot like magic.

Kirche raised an eyebrow. "What do you think, Tabitha?"

"Strange."

"I don't believe it either."

"Well, I supposed I do owe you an explanation," Pyrrha said.

"No you don't," Louise said.

Pyrrha shot her a look full of patience. "They _did_ fight alongside us. I'll explain everything on the way back."

WWW

"PLKT. TKLP. KLPT?"

"KPTL. KTPL."

"LPTK? How liberal of a definition are we using for 'word?'"

After returning with the Staff of Destruction and the captured thief, the four girls spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for the Ball of Frigg. Louise had wanted to take Pyrrha shopping to pick out a dress, but with their mission, they hadn't had the time, so Pyrrha ended up borrowing one. Pyrrha was too tall for anything in Louise's wardrobe, but Kirche had volunteered to lend her one of her own gowns.

If Pyrrha had known that Kirche's definition of a conservative neckline meant one that didn't reach her navel, she might have pursued other options.

Still, despite their preparations, Pyrrha doubted that any of them would make it to the dancefloor.

"KTLP. KPLT. Catapult?"

They had more important things to work on.

"Team Catapult? I think we can do better than that."

"I've yet to see any evidence to the contrary."

Looking back, Pyrrha's respect for Headmaster Ozpin grew as she realized just how difficult it was to take four random letters and make a word out of them.

"Okay, here's an idea. There's no rule that says we _have_ to use our first given names, right? So if we replace the L with a Z—"

"And replace the K with an S …"

"Pardon me," a well dressed young man said, approaching them. "Might you honor me with a—"

"No," Kirche said.

"But—"

"Beat it, loser," Louise said. "We're busy."

Pyrrha stood up and put a hand on his shoulder. "We are actually in the middle of something, but that girl sitting alone over there looks like she hasn't been asked to dance in a while, and I'm sure she'd appreciate it."

On the way back from the mission, she had told Kirche and Tabitha about Aura just as she had with Louise weeks before, which led to questions about Semblances, Huntresses, and finally teams.

"You done with the list, Tabitha?" Kirche asked.

Tabitha nodded and handed her a piece of paper.

KTLP KTPL KPLT KPTL KLPT KLTP

TKPL TKLP TLPK TLKP TPLK TPKL

LTPK LTKP LKPT LKTP LPKT LPTK

PKLT PKTL PTKL PTLK PLTK PLKT

"Well, these are horrible. Pyrrha, quick question. If your initial comes first in the team name, does that make you leader?"

"Generally, yes," Pyrrha said. "When I was on Team JNPR, my friend Jaune always led us on missions." Jaune, Nora, Ren. She could not have wished for finer friends. She had no idea if she would ever see them again, now that they were a world apart, but she would never forget them. Now, forming a new team with new friends, she wasn't replacing them, but she _was_ moving on, and she hoped that the rest of Team JNPR would be able to do the same.

"So really," Kirche said, "we just need to pick a leader and take it from there."

"I vote for anyone besides Kirche," Louise said.

"I vote for anyone besides Louise," Kirche said.

"Pyrrha," Tabitha said.

Pyrrha snapped out of her reverie. "Wait, what?"

"Alright, it's unanimous!" Kirche said, grinning.

"But—"

Louise threw a fist in the air. "Team leader Pyrrha!"

Kirche held up Tabitha's list. "So we've narrowed it down to Team Pickled, Picktle, P-patkle? Um, Pitlock? P-platonic, maybe? Oh, I can see that turning ironic. And Plankton. Right."

"Maybe we should sleep on it?" Pyrrha suggested.

"Wait," Louise said. "What did you mean by ironic?"

"We should definitely sleep on it," Kirche said.

Eventually the ball ended, and they all went their separate ways, ending what Pyrrha would later remember as the first mission of Team Not Heretofore Yet Named. All things considered, it could have gone much, much worse.

WWW

A/n If anyone can come up with a decent team name out of those four letters, let me know, and I may write a Pyrrha III chapter. I like the idea of Pyrrha spreading the knowledge of Aura until she can set up her own Huntsman Academy of Tristain. Or, you know, she could be boring and _follow_ the Prime Directive.

Anyway, thank you to everyone who left reviews, and thank you Magery for editing this chapter, as he has so many times before.

Also, fun fact and totally unintentional. Not Heretofore Yet Named spells NHYN, pronounced Nine, which is which chapter this is. 


	10. Weiss

Remnants of Another World

Chapter Ten

Weiss

What was the Heiress after she had been disinherited? What was Weiss after losing her status, her wealth, and all of the things that made her … _her_?

She didn't know, but, taking one last look back at the house she grew up in, she knew she wasn't going to find out here. When it was the only thing she'd known, it had seemed normal to her, but now she saw it for what it was: an ivory tower and a gilded cage wrapped up in one. Not a home. A home was never so cold.

She shivered, shaking the snow out of her platinum-blonde hair. She had been cold for as long as she lived in Atlas. Sometimes it was a brisk cold, invigorating her to act. Sometimes the cold was empty, a void that sucked the heat from her. This cold, tonight, pierced her to the core.

Her father had never wanted her to study at Beacon. He hadn't wanted her to become a Huntress at all. Why would the future C.E.O of the Schnee Dust Corporation need to know how to fight Grimm? Why travel halfway across the world when Atlas Academy was only an hour away?

Why do _anything_ that would open a door that her father didn't hold the key to?

She turned away from the Schnee mansion for the last time. What was left for her there now? What was _ever_ there for her? The hope that her father would realize that an heir who told him everything he wanted to hear _wasn't_ what he wanted? Or maybe the hope that her mother would take charge of the travesty that was the Schnee family, sometime next year … when she was sober.

She still didn't know what she was, now that she didn't have her father tugging at her leash day and night, but she was free to find out.

Yes.

That was it.

She was _free_.

WWW

"What do you mean, you own me?" Weiss demanded.

"You're my familiar," Louise said. "All mages have one; I'm surprised you haven't heard of this before."

Weiss had said yes when Louise asked her if she was a mage, but when the pink-haired girl referred to Myrtenaster as a "sword-wand," Weiss began to think she'd misunderstood something.

"No one has 'familiars' in Atlas."

"Where's that?"

"North of here." Weiss didn't know where Tristain was, but Atlas was north of everything.

"Well, in more civilized parts of the world, we have familiars."

Weiss choked down a laugh at the "civilized" remark. The academy Louise had summoned her to looked like it was built in the Dark Ages, right down to its total lack of wi-fi. That Louise had summoned her at all and had no idea how (or desire) to send her back didn't bother her either. She had spent her formative years surrounded by self centered snobs, so one more didn't bother her, but Louise had managed to be completely ignorant of the location of one of the four major kingdoms in the world.

She sat down to think. "Hey!" Louise said. "I did not give you permission to sit."

"No, you did not," Weiss said without standing. "If you were _civilized_ , you would have offered your guest a seat as soon as we entered your room, but I have generously decided to overlook that."

"Who said you were a guest?"

"I did. Like I said, I'm generous. See, either I am your accidental guest and grateful for your hospitality, or you kidnapped me, and that would be most unwise. So? What am I?"

Weiss looked her in the eyes with an icy stare, and Louise looked her in the … scar. People always did. They seemed surprise that a girl with her perfectly styled hair and refined manners had been marked by combat, but she was glad she had it. It proved that the sword at her hip was _not_ for show.

"Fa-mil-iar," Louise said, as though speaking to an exceptionally dull child. "That means that I have to take care of you, and you have to do what I say. I don't like it either. I've never even heard of a human familiar, let alone a human _mage_ familiar, but if I have to deal with it then so do you."

Weiss considered that. Technically she didn't have any money, not in this backwards country (they still used the _gold_ standard here, for crying out loud), and it wouldn't hurt to have a place to stay until she figured out which nowhere she had ended up in the middle of. "Let's say I decide to play along. Where would I even sleep? You only have one bed."

Technically it was large enough for two, but the closest Weiss had ever come to sharing a bed with someone was Ruby sticking her inverted head down from the top bunk to bother her all night long.

"Obviously you'd sleep on the floor," Louise said.

Weiss raised an eyebrow. She'd slept on floors before while on a team mission, but for Louise to demand that while sleeping on a bed was petty. No, it was worse than petty; it was obviously petty. A pettiness cliché.

She knew what it was about, of course. Posturing. Treat someone like an animal long enough, and they'll start acting like one. But this girl was an amateur. Weiss' father knew every trick in the book to demean and belittle people until they began to accept it— _believe_ it. Dust, he had _written_ the book.

And it made for a lousy bedtime story.

But like that, she had the answer to the question she had been asking since she left home. _What am I, after losing everything by which I defined myself? What am I when I no longer have what has always made me,_ me _?_

She was, she realized, what she had always been.

"I'm the Ice Queen," she whispered.

"What?"

Weiss stood up, drew Myrtenaster, and slammed its tip into the floor. A trail of ice crystals, beautiful and cold, exploded into existence, freezing Louise up to her neck. "You said I have to do what you say. Let's test that, shall we?"

Louise struggled, but couldn't move. "What are you doing? Let me go!"

Weiss cocked her head. "Hmm, that didn't seem to work. Try again. Use your mystic arts, like when you branded this scar into my hand." Louise had done _that_ with a kiss, which was frankly as improper as it was rude.

"Familiar! As your master, I order you to release me!"

"See, that only makes me want to help you less. If you do not understand, then I blame myself for not being clear, so let me say this: I am _not_ your pet. I am not some other thing you own. I am Weiss Schnee, and I demand your respect."

"I'm serious, Weiss! This is really cold!" Her lower lip began to tremble. Was she going to start crying? Well, so be it. It would take more than tears to melt her ice. "Please!"

"You only needed to ask." With a tap from her sword, the ice shattered, and Louise fell to the floor, damp and shivering. Weiss pulled her to her feet, not roughly, but not gently either. "Now go cocoon yourself in blankets until you don't look so pathetic."

Louise scurried to her bed and bundled herself up until she was nothing but a scowling face. "You're mean."

Weiss tilted her head. "From where I'm standing I have been most fair. Now that I have your attention, let's establish the sleeping arrangement. We'll be sharing the bed until another one of equal or greater quality becomes available. Before you get any ideas, we'll be sharing meal plans as well as anything else I might need during my stay here, which you, as my gracious host, will be happy to provide." She planted a glyph on the floor, created a throne of ice, and sat down on it, crossing her legs primly.

"What do I get out of this?"

"In return, I will ignore the fact that you kidnapped me."

"But I never even wanted you!"

"Then perhaps you should be more careful in the future. Hopefully this will be a brief arrangement until I procure a means of transport to my destination." A throne of ice, she decided, was exactly as comfortable as it looked. Still, it made a good impression. "Louise, I do not know if you understand this, so let me make this clear. I am offering to treat you as an equal, which is not an honor I hand out lightly _or_ often."

Louise glared at her, still buried in her own blankets. "If you hate me so much, why offer me anything?"

"I don't hate you," Weiss said. "I pity you."

Louise's eyes grew wide. "What? I'll have you know that I am a Valliére, youngest daughter of a duke! I do not need nor want your _pity_!"

Weiss nodded slowly. "Yes, I thought it was something like that." _Mirror, mirror._ "I do not know the name, but it sounds like you come from a respected and prestigious family. It sounds like you have carried the burden of your name your whole life, knowing that your every achievement would be taken for granted, and that no failure would ever be forgotten. It sounds, Louise, like you are worthy of much pity."

Louise stared at her. "What? No, I'm not … that's not …" She fell silent. "Okay," she said finally, her eyes narrowed. "When we're alone, you can do whatever you like, but when we're in public, you _will_ at least pretend to be my familiar."

Weiss shook her head. "No. When we are in public, I will pretend to be your friend. It's a believable enough lie, I think." And if Weiss had to guess, she'd say that Louise didn't have many friends. Weiss never did, until she came to Beacon.

Louise hesitated, considering her options. Or rather, her option. Or rather, the icecube. "Okay, fine. If you're not staying long, it hardly matters anyway."

After that, Weiss shattered her ice throne and the two of them got ready for bed. She searched Louise's wardrobe for a nightdress that wasn't horrendously pink, but her new roommate seemed thorough in her fashion mistakes.

Climbing into bed with a relative stranger was awkward in several ways that Weiss was determined not to focus on, but after a few minutes she had managed to relax. She had nearly fallen asleep when Louise let out a shriek.

"What is it?"

"Holy Founder!" Louise gasped. "Your feet are freezing!"

Weiss blinked. _They are?_ "Um, you have … exceptionally warm legs."

"Yeah, and I want to keep them that way! You nearly gave me hypothermia tonight, Weiss. There's no way I'm letting you give me frostbite too."

Louise rolled over to a safe distance, and Weiss thought about her friends as she tried to fall asleep again. Blake, Yang, Ruby. Ending up in this backwards country was a setback, but a minor one. As soon as she found out where Tristain was on a map, she could make her way to a metropolitan center with a serviceable airport, and she'd be in Mistral in a few weeks at most.

If she had looked out the window and noticed the second moon in the night sky, Weiss might have felt far less confident in her travel plans.

WWW

A/n And that's the Weiss chapter. With how much she and Louise have in common, I figured that either they'd get along really well or really badly. If Louise had summoned volume one Weiss, this would have been a very different story.

As usual, thank you for everyone who left a review, and thank you Magery for editing this. He also showed me his meme vault. He has a meme vault. Does everyone have a meme vault? Should I get a meme vault? I should get a meme vault … because I don't have enough distractions on the internet already. I shouldn't get a meme vault. But you _should_ leave a review, because that's what wonderful people do, and I'm sure you could be a wonderful person if you tried really hard.


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